lwr001 said:

NuPwrSoul said:

What does the Carnegie Hall thing have to do with him?

He didn't attend (even though he said he would and was in town). That's actually a strike against him.

Do you know for certain he wasn't there// Iwas there... And if he sucked as bad as orgers make him out to be there would be no tribute

most ORGers do love prince. this website needs work

I got a ticket for tonight and I am so freakin' excited. I keep hearing reports that it is 250-500 people, max! OMFG!

The

Is there a live stream or something? I'm curious, because he's bringing the band w/ Gouche and R. Bruner. Gouche already twittered it. I think they will play some new songs!

hisbadness said:

The

Got my wristband. So stoked. Im not sure if itll really be only 250-500. I think thats how many samsung gave away. Who knows how many sxsw is giving out. Either way the venue only holds about 2000ish so itll be amazing

Congrats on getting the wristband! Please do a write-up of the show, for all of us who can't go.

CarolineC said:

hisbadness said:

The

Got my wristband. So stoked. Im not sure if itll really be only 250-500. I think thats how many samsung gave away. Who knows how many sxsw is giving out. Either way the venue only holds about 2000ish so itll be amazing

Congrats on getting the wristband! Please do a write-up of the show, for all of us who can't go.

Yes, please keep us updated!

MISTERHANDS said:

Is there a live stream or something? I'm curious, because he's bringing the band w/ Gouche and R. Bruner. Gouche already twittered it. I think they will play some new songs!

Nice! I bet it will be some performance with his 22 piece band. Will be interesting to hear how he works this.

SXSW seems to only be streaming some artists' shows on their site at time of performance, but not so sure we will get to see Prince close out the show.

[Edited 3/17/13 7:04am]

terrible job of laying the Marley in that Pic .... You would think team P would not even step on it ... let alone dance .... great shot otherwise though ...

serpan99 said:

Still going strong...and furry.

[img:$uid]http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l579/SirLancelots/SXSW2.jpg[/img:$uid]

SirLancelot said:

I want that lion hat! (for my kids)

Great photo, and everyone looks so happy.

Does anyone have a setlist?

kenkamken said:

SirLancelot said:

Still going strong...and furry.

[img:$uid]http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l579/SirLancelots/SXSW2.jpg[/img:$uid]

Oh man! Hope it was a blast tonight, wish I could have been there. Waiting on reports.

Not my pic, by the way. From the Twitterverse...

SXSW: Prince shuts it down in style at La Zona Rosa

http://www.philly.com/phi...-Rosa.html

As "Purple Rain" was building to a crescendo about an hour into his dazzling, hard-working performance that closed out the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas on Saturday night, Prince paused to say a few words.

"I love being a musician," the 54 year old Minneapolis wonder said. "It feels like being a servant. A servant to you." (Though in his mind, he probably spelled it "A servant 2 U.")

And though he was pretending to be wrapping up his set at the time before the crowd of 1300 fans pinching themselves for scoring a ticket to maybe the most in-demand show in the festival's 27 year history, it turned out Prince was just starting his evening of service.

Because from there, the bandleader who fronted a 22 person, frightingly funky and astoundingly versatile ensemble that goes by the longtime Prince band name New Power Generation, went on to play six encores, with a combined length stetching to almost twice as long as the set that preceded it.

"You've heard of five hour energy?," the impish musical polymath asked. "Eleven hour energy is my middle name." He also taunted the audience during one of several phony goodbyes: "Goodnight, Austin. Don't make me hurt you: Do you know how many hits I have?"

A lot, and while changing costumes often, beginning with a sleek blue suit and finishing in a leather vest and a stuffed animal hat - to match those worn by his 9 member horn section - he did a good number of them, including "1999," and "U Got The Look." But with the assistance of four female singers (who also danced as most everybody does on stage and off, at a Prince show), he also did plenty of other people's songs, and songs he wrote for other people.

In particular, he dug deep into the 1980s catalog of The Time, getting bodies moving with "Cool," "Jungle Love" and "The Bird." With powerhouse drummer John Blackwell as anchor, the band moved through Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and "Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately?"

He started one particularly epic encore segment with "Curtis Mayfield's "We're A Winner," which he prefaced by saying, "This is the kind of music that used to lift us up, that made us feel like we wanted to be something." (He asked the crowd how many of them were familiar with Mayfield, and when not enough sounded out in the affirmative, he tut-tutted and said "I seee we have some young folk here."

After the Mayfield tune, the master class in "Musicology" continued with one of NPG's female vocalist's stepping forward for Aretha Franklin's "(I Ain't Ever Loved A Man) The Way That I Love You," and the erotic ballad "Satisfied," on which he sang the line "Torn off your cell phone, baby!" even though the show was sponsored by mobile device maker Samsung, whom Prince thanked for calling him because "I guess they decided Austin needed some funk."

That tune was followed by a brilliant on-the-one workout of James Brown's "I Don't Want No One To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door, I'll Get It Myself)" and Prince's own shuddering "Housequake."

In the course of the 2 hour 40 minute evening, Prince played piano, and (beautifully) sang piano ballads, most notably the unfamiliar to these ears "Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)." What he did not do, all night long, was play guitar, somewhat perversely, since he not only is one of the world's great lead players, but also he began the evening by correctly commenting on the Austin's notoriety for its axemen. You might have thought that he would be out to teach them a thing or two, but he apparently had other priorities on his mind. Such as proving that "there ain't no party like a purple party," which, as was clear when he finally stopped playing just south of 3 a.m., there most assuredly is not.

Prince closes out SXSW with a six-encore marathon

Posted by: Chris Riemenschneider

http://www.startribune.co...67351.html

As if five straight 16-hour days of nonstop live music wasn’t enough for one festival, Prince took the South by Southwest Music Conference into overtime with his closing-night party Saturday.

The Minnesota rock boss performed six encores at his invite-only promotional performance for Samsung, whose mobile devices had their batteries tested like never before as the little energizer kept going and going till 3 a.m. Sunday at La Zona Rosa nightclub.

“We’re gonna show you how we do it in Minneapolis,” he warned at the start of the first encore.

Of course, the way Prince has often done shows in his hometown is by first making the audience wait for their musical pudding. He didn’t go on until nearly 12:30 a.m., when doors opened at 9 p.m. and many attendees started lining up hours before that. At least they were treated to a rare performance by influential hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest as an opening act. Samsung gave out wristbands for this wowza double-header concert to users of their $700 Galaxy mobile phones, who had to rack up points at 11 different vendor locations in Austin. The company certainly deserves points for staging what may be the most elaborate SXSW party after Kanye West’s big bash in a vacant power plant in 2011.

Even though La Zona Rosa is a full-time, hi-fi music venue, Prince still made Samsung build him a new stage from scratch along the long wall of the club to accommodate the 18-piece New Poer Generation band lineup he brought with him. Throw in a stretched-out video screen behind said stage -- plus confetti guns and a bevy of glitzy lighting -- and the giant South Korean electronics maker had clearly spent a small fortune even before it handed over Prince’s paycheck (which was undoubtedly a not-so-small fortune; at least $1 million seems like a good guess).

Even with all that visual eye candy – including the several different blouses Prince changed in and out of – the show’s handlers still threatened to eject attendees for taking pictures with their mobile devices during his set. So yes: Prince demanded that nobody use the product he was there to promote.

The concert followed a similar pattern as last fall’s Welcome 2 Chicago shows and his second night of January’s three-night stand at the Dakota in Minneapolis. He only sang a few of the hits, starting with “1999” for the second song and “Purple Rain” just before that first encore break, 50 minutes past go (for a few minutes, it looked like Samsung wasn’t getting its money’s worth).

For the rest of the show, Prince often acted more like a George Clinton-like cheerleader than the spine-tingling singer that he is, always urging various members of his band to take solos, especially drummer John Blackwell and saxophonist Marcus Anderson. Thanks to his own disinterest in playing a guitar – was he afraid the Austin humidity might warp the neck? – Donna Grantis of his new 3rd Eye Girl band got some extra spotlight time, too. Ironically, he addressed his surroundings mid-show from a six-string context: “Austin, Texas: Just like I pictured it," he said. "You’ve got a lotta guitar players up here, don’t you?”

Prince’s current NPG lineup is killer, no question, but the crowd obviously didn’t come to find that out. Some of the workout jams included “Musicology,” Curtis Mayfield’s “We’re a Winner,” James Brown’s “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing” and parts of the Jackson family catalog – Michael’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough,” Janet’s “What Have You Done for Me Lately?” He rewarded diehard fans in the crowd deeper into the encores with some of “Something in the Water Does Not Compute” as well as snippets of “Housequake” and the Time's “Cool.” By then, those nutty fans included Questlove, who apparently ran over after his competing gig with Justin Timberlake at the MySpace party several blocks away.

Prince just kept coming back out. The 2½-hour set was the antithesis to the wham-bam performances that the thousands of other bands in town had to play in quick order during SXSW – bands that, by the way, were losing untold amounts of attention from media and music professionals while conference attendees waited on Prince. At least the presumptuous Purple One offered something in the way of a benediction to fittingly sum up Austin’s holy week: “I love being a musician,” he said. “It feels like a service.”

Maybe SXSW organizers should try to book him as the keynote speaker next year. You can bet that won’t go over the allotted time.

A Tribe Called Quest’s 50-minute warm-up set was more like a typical SXSW set, in that the New Yorkers tore through their songs rapidly, starting with “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)” and including “Can I Kick It?,” “Oh My God,” “Bonita Applebum” and the finale “Award Tour.” Though largely inactive of late, the guys still displayed an ageless chemistry. After the latter tune, the group’s forever-charismatic lead MC, Q-Tip, stuck around to mop up – literally.

“Do you know what I’m doing?” he asked the crowd as he toweled off the stage. “I’m cleaning up for Prince. I would never do this for anybody else.”

Q-Tip clearly wasn't the only one to make that statement on Saturday. Read our full festival coverage at www.startribune.com/sxsw.

What he did not do, all night long, was play guitar

WTF?

I'm sure it was fun and all.. But I would have been so disappointed if i was there for 3 hours without seeing him play some guitar.

And i was hoping to see some new set-list for this upcoming tour

This is the same show we saw in Chicago and that SUCKED ASS bad!! He did not play guitar then either and did the same songs and I HATED IT!! Waaaaayyyy too many covers. I will pass on this tour coming up if this is the setlist. Too bad as I was excited

So all he did was the same setlist from the chicago show, instead having Hannah on percussion and Donna as second guitarist. He's wasting an oppotunity with this two new bands thing, he should be touring little clubs with 3rdeyegirl playing all his rock stuff and new material, and doing bigger concerts with a new more hits based setlist (but different hits) with the RBJ/Andrew Gouche lineup. Geez Prince way to bore your fans into a coma...

Prince Lights Up SXSW With Epic, Improvised Set

By Gary Graff, Austin | March 17, 2013 8:46 AM EDT

http://www.billboard.com/...ovised-set

This was no recitation of greatest hits -- or even of Prince's own material – but rather an exercise in organic, improvisational music-making. "Austin, don't let me hurt you"

The ground shaking around South By Southwest on Saturday night (well, technically Sunday morning) was nothing to be alarmed about.

But it was a genuine Housequake, a stomping two hours and 35 minutes of rock, funk and occasionally jazz jamming by Prince and his super-sized, 22-member New Power Generation band at La Zona Rosa, a Samsung Galaxy-sponsored event that was arguably the hottest ticket of the conference -- with some hopeful fans even lining up outside the club as early as Friday morning.

Prince and company delivered on the hype, performing on a specially built stage (including a massive LED wall behind the band) and absolutely slamming through a tightly played epic of a show that delivered surprises with nearly every note. This was no recitation of greatest hits -- or even of Prince's own material – but rather an exercise in organic, improvisational music-making and ensemble dynamics that Prince guided like a conductor steering an orchestra through an intricate symphony, even eschewing the guitar to focus on the task of bandleader, occasionally adding keyboard accents to a handful of songs. Structures were altered and even abandoned, making room for solos by each of the NPG members and showy vamps and instrumental breakdowns.

As the man told the ebullient crowd at the club, in a made-for-SXSW testimonial, "I love being a musician. It feels like being a servant -- a servant to you."

Those in attendance -- including My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Mayer Hawthorne, Talib Kwele and actor Bo Keene -- certainly felt well-served, even if Prince delivered just a smattering of his own songs. "1999" blasted forth early in the show, amidst some selections from 2004's "Musicology," including the title track. "Purple Rain" was also played during the main set, with Prince substituting a stirring set of vocal vamping in lieu of the song's guitar solo. He may have warned, "Austin, don't let me hurt you. You know how many hits I got?," but Prince left the vast majority of those on the bench and, when touching on his originals, dug deep for material such as "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)."

Instead the indefatigable performer, who sported several different outfits during the show, populated the "after-party" encores with covers, some focused on his contributions to other artists while also ripping through some surprising covers. Prince nodded to his forebears and heroes with versions of Curtis Mayfield's "We're a Winner," Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You," James Brown's "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself) ( Part 1)" and Rose Royce's "Which Way Is Up," and he paid homage to some peers with a set of Jackson family favorites -- Michael's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," Janet's "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and the Jackson 5's "Dancing Machine," during which he brought several fans onstage to join the "purple party." Prince the composer, meanwhile, visited The Time's "Cool," "The Bird" and "Jungle Love," Sheila E's "The Glamorous Life" and Sheena Easton's "U Got the Look."

It was exhausting, if not exhaustive, but it was clear that even at 3 a.m. the La Zona Rosa crowd would have been happy to stick around for a few more….dozen…encores. "What a night, huh?" Prince asked at one point. No kidding…

RumAndRaisin said:

So all he did was the same setlist from the chicago show, instead having Hannah on percussion and Donna as second guitarist. He's wasting an oppotunity with this two new bands thing, he should be touring little clubs with 3rdeyegirl playing all his rock stuff and new material, and doing bigger concerts with a new more hits based setlist (but different hits) with the RBJ/Andrew Gouche lineup. Geez Prince way to bore your fans into a coma...

Yes, but that might be what some fans would like him to do, but may not be his plan. If earlier reports said he had a 22 piece band, how'd did you expect him to just use the 3rdeyegirl members? I read tweets that Hannah did play on some songs at that festival, and Prince never made an announcement that the 2 new band members (Donna and Hannah) added to his NPG family, were going to be his only, official band members with Ida already included, to use in the future. Nor was there ever an official announcement that he got rid of his recent NPG band members that he's toured with for the past 2 years plus.

It seems obvious he's using specific band members for songs/sounds he wants to present and shows he performs at. Maybe rock isn't all he wants to limit himself to, but just make it inclusive with the other forms of music he obviously embraces. Nothing wrong with that. A little bit of everything for everybody, not just for one, two or a handful of his worldwide fanbase.

[Edited 3/17/13 6:31am]

[Edited 3/17/13 6:42am]